Education and outreach

 I recognized the need to fill a gap in our current curriculum on genomics. As a result, I developed a course on the Human Microbiome where students generate and analyze next-generation sequencing data. I helped craft a game on host-parasite coevolution called the Red Queen’s Race demonstrating my ability to create an innovative solution for curriculum development (published as Gibson, Drown, and Lively, 2015). I integrated outreach into the classroom where students write for a course blog on peer reviewed literature. After becoming a Chancellor’s Innovation in Technology and E-learning (CITE) fellow UAF, I developed more teaching innovations for undergraduate education such as integrating the Learning Glass for flipped classroom activities and online learning. Building on my expertise with nanopore sequencing, I have run multiple workshops exploring genomics with the MinION sequencing platform. I developed a mobile laboratory to explore genomics and in 2018 and 2019, my lab led workshops with STEMSEAS aboard the R/V Sikuliaq, a 261-foot oceanographic research ship. I developed and tested these activities into a curriculum (Ducluzeau et al 2019). In 2020, my lab ran a workshop engaging undergraduates in the search for novel antibiotics in soil microbes (Haan et al 2020).